context switches are expensive, I don't want to even imagine how much a micro code switch would cost.
But even then it would be impossible to do. Lets take a small example.
There is no was given control of the 6502's instruction decoded I could get it to handle a Z80. There are just not enough registers to handle the set I need to emulate. let alone enough pins to handle IO output vs normal bus which is what the Z80 memory map expects. Then how would I have 6502 code that expects a ZP at 0, and reset at FFFC and then Z80 code that wants to have it reset vectors at $0000 in the same internal memory map?
But then in reverse, the Z80 has micro code but there is no way I'm getting it to emulate a 6502. the output puts, the memory bus layout doesn't match and it only has a 4bit ALU. The pipeline model the machine has doesn't match either and is very hard to get it to mimic a 6502.
Now convert this to needing to do a 40 stage pipeline to support a P4 and then with a hyper threading it needs a superscalar architecture to run off that pipeline vs a 2 stage MIPS pipeline that is not superscalar? How is this ever going to work. The Micro code if the cpu even has any is not the only part of the design, the physical silicon layout is just as important as the signals that control it.
A software emulation model with translation in the vein of Rosetta Stone 2 on mac, or the way AROS/AREOS have a 68K emulation support so they can run native Amiga software and a PPC emulator for the OS4.0+ software and then native X86 for the linux core or ARM if on an Arm machine is going to be vastly more practical and efficient, especially as it can then handle the other details needed for the hardware and OS.
Same as Windows needs the WSL to run POSIX code.
Windows 11 went to the dark side, anyone going Linux?
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Oziphantom
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Re: Windows 11 went to the dark side, anyone going Linux?
My PC qualifies for Windows 11 requirements with a B450-F board and Ryzen 3600 CPU, which will probably be upgraded to the last gen AM4 CPU once they decide to pull the plug on the platform. I will likely just skip AM5 completely since by the time this setup will become outdated enough there will be something else out there. However, I don't particularly feel the need to switch to Win 11 at all. It feels like Microsoft likes this pattern that every second major OS is a step in a decent direction and the other step is not that likeable, where ME was kind of shit, XP was great, Vista was kind of shit, 7 was great, 8 was kind of shit, 10 was great and 11 is looking kind of shit.
As I got into (NES)dev I started repurposing my old university notebook and other stuff to become on-the-go programming machines. I had such an old notebook from 2014 with a dual core Celeron. It was doing OK but the battery died and I couldn't take it for train trips like that since every so often there are short intermediary sections where there is no power in the overhead line - this is when the train moves from a section served from one substation to the next. This was enough for my notebook to lose power, so it was impossible to use. Then I bought a replacement battery, and it also didn't work as the problem wasn't the battery itself but rather that the charging circuit was dead. So I got my hands on a second-hand Fujitsu Lifebook E549 that seemingly used to be part of some company's inventory. The battery life surpassed my expectations even though it isn't quite at full health anymore, it can still last 4-5 hours with my usual amount of strain put on the machine. These guys are all running Ubuntu and since I set up everything the way I wanted it's actually been more enjoyable to do dev with than my desktop, minus the lack of extra monitors of course. I'm trying to do as much as I can from the terminal but when using a graphical UI is faster I use it. I have used both Xfce and KDE, currently using the latter. The only thing that will make me keep a Win 10 install stashed somewhere will be software that I just can not run otherwise. Even for gaming I have all the emulators I need and Proton gets the job done for what I like to play on the go.
As I got into (NES)dev I started repurposing my old university notebook and other stuff to become on-the-go programming machines. I had such an old notebook from 2014 with a dual core Celeron. It was doing OK but the battery died and I couldn't take it for train trips like that since every so often there are short intermediary sections where there is no power in the overhead line - this is when the train moves from a section served from one substation to the next. This was enough for my notebook to lose power, so it was impossible to use. Then I bought a replacement battery, and it also didn't work as the problem wasn't the battery itself but rather that the charging circuit was dead. So I got my hands on a second-hand Fujitsu Lifebook E549 that seemingly used to be part of some company's inventory. The battery life surpassed my expectations even though it isn't quite at full health anymore, it can still last 4-5 hours with my usual amount of strain put on the machine. These guys are all running Ubuntu and since I set up everything the way I wanted it's actually been more enjoyable to do dev with than my desktop, minus the lack of extra monitors of course. I'm trying to do as much as I can from the terminal but when using a graphical UI is faster I use it. I have used both Xfce and KDE, currently using the latter. The only thing that will make me keep a Win 10 install stashed somewhere will be software that I just can not run otherwise. Even for gaming I have all the emulators I need and Proton gets the job done for what I like to play on the go.